Maxine Waters facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Maxine Waters
Waters in 2012
Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2023
Preceded by	Patrick McHenry
In office January 3, 2013 – January 3, 2019
Preceded by	Barney Frank
Succeeded by	Patrick McHenry
Chair of the House Financial Services Committee
In office January 3, 2019 – January 3, 2023
Preceded by	Jeb Hensarling
Succeeded by	Patrick McHenry
Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus
In office January 3, 1997 – January 3, 1999
Preceded by	Donald M. Payne
Succeeded by	Jim Clyburn
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 1991
Preceded by	Augustus Hawkins
Constituency	29th district (1991–1993) 35th district (1993–2013) 43rd district (2013–present)
Member of the California State Assembly from the 48th district
In office December 6, 1976 – November 30, 1990
Preceded by	Leon D. Ralph
Succeeded by	Marguerite Archie-Hudson
Personal details
Born	Maxine Moore Carr (1938-08-15) August 15, 1938 (age 86) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Edward Waters ​ ​ (m. 1956; div. 1972)​ Sid Williams ​ (m. 1977)​
Children	2
Education	California State University, Los Angeles (BA)

Maxine Moore Waters (née Carr; born August 15, 1938) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 43rd congressional district since 1991. The district, numbered as the 29th district from 1991 to 1993 and as the 35th district from 1993 to 2013, includes much of southern Los Angeles, as well as portions of Gardena, Inglewood and Torrance.

A member of the Democratic Party, Waters is in her 17th House term. She is the most senior of the 13 black women serving in Congress, and chaired the Congressional Black Caucus from 1997 to 1999. She is the second-most senior member of the California congressional delegation, after Nancy Pelosi. She chaired the House Financial Services Committee from 2019 to 2023 and has been the ranking member since 2023.

Before becoming a U.S. representative, Waters served seven terms in the California State Assembly, to which she was first elected in 1976. As an assemblywoman, she advocated divestment from South Africa's apartheid regime. In Congress, she was an outspoken opponent of the Iraq War and has sharply criticized Presidents George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.

Waters was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.

Early life and education

Waters was born in 1938 in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Remus Carr and Velma Lee (née Moore). The fifth of 13 children, she was raised by her single mother after her father left the family when Maxine was two. She graduated from Vashon High School in St. Louis before moving with her family to Los Angeles in 1961. She worked in a garment factory and as a telephone operator before being hired as an assistant teacher with the Head Start program in Watts in 1966. Waters later enrolled at Los Angeles State College (now California State University, Los Angeles), where she received a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1971.

Early political career

In 1973, Waters went to work as chief deputy to City Councilman David S. Cunningham, Jr. She was elected to the California State Assembly in 1976. In the Assembly, she worked for the divestment of state pension funds from any businesses active in South Africa, a country then operating under the policy of apartheid, and helped pass legislation within the guidelines of the divestment campaign's Sullivan Principles. She ascended to the position of Democratic Caucus Chair for the Assembly.

U.S. House of Representatives

Waters greeting President Bill Clinton in 1994

Waters watches as President Joe Biden signs the Methane, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and True Lender CRA Bills in 2021

Elections

Upon the retirement of Augustus F. Hawkins in 1990, Waters was elected to the United States House of Representatives for California's 29th congressional district with over 79% of the vote. She has been reelected consistently from this district, renumbered as the 35th district in 1992 and as the 43rd in 2012, with at least 70% of the vote.

Waters has represented large parts of south-central Los Angeles and the Los Angeles coastal communities of Westchester and Playa Del Rey, as well as the cities of Torrance, Gardena, Hawthorne, Inglewood and Lawndale.

Tenure

Waters at a 1998 House Committee on the Judiciary hearing during the Impeachment inquiry against Bill Clinton

Waters chaired the Congressional Black Caucus from 1997 to 1998. In 2005, she testified at the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearings on "Enforcement of Federal Anti-Fraud Laws in For-Profit Education", highlighting the American College of Medical Technology as a "problem school" in her district. In 2006, she was involved in the debate over King Drew Medical Center. She criticized media coverage of the hospital and asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny a waiver of the cross ownership ban, and hence license renewal for KTLA-TV, a station the Los Angeles Times owned. She said, "The Los Angeles Times has had an inordinate effect on public opinion and has used it to harm the local community in specific instances." She requested that the FCC force the paper to either sell its station or risk losing that station's broadcast rights. According to Broadcasting & Cable, the challenges raised "the specter of costly legal battles to defend station holdings... At a minimum, defending against one would cost tens of thousands of dollars in lawyers' fees and probably delay license renewal about three months". Waters's petition was unsuccessful.

As a Democratic representative in Congress, Waters was a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She endorsed Democratic U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton for the party's nomination in late January 2008, granting Clinton nationally recognized support that some suggested would "make big waves." Waters later switched her endorsement to U.S. Senator Barack Obama when his lead in the pledged delegate count became insurmountable on the final day of primary voting.

Upon Barney Frank's retirement in 2012, Waters became the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee. On July 24, 2013, she voted in favor of Amendment 100 in H.R. 2397 Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2014. The amendment targeted domestic surveillance activities, specifically that of the National Security Agency, and would have limited the flexibility of the NSA's interpretation of the law to collect sweeping data on U.S. citizens. Amendment 100 was rejected, 217–205.

On March 27, 2014, Waters introduced a discussion draft of the Housing Opportunities Move the Economy Forward Act of 2014 known as the Home Forward Act of 2014. A key provision of the bill includes the collection of 10 basis points for "every dollar outstanding mortgages collateralizing covered securities", estimated at $5 billion a year. These funds would be directed to three funds that support affordable housing initiatives, with 75% going to the National Housing trust fund. The National Housing Trust Fund will then provide block grants to states to be used primarily to build, preserve, rehabilitate, and operate rental housing that is affordable to the lowest income households, and groups including seniors, disabled persons and low income workers. The National Housing Trust was enacted in 2008, but has yet to be funded. In 2009, Waters co-sponsored Representative John Conyers's bill calling for reparations for slavery to be paid to black Americans.

For her tenure as chair of the House Financial Services Committee in the 116th Congress, Waters earned an "A" grade from the nonpartisan Lugar Center's Congressional Oversight Hearing Index.

Committee assignments

For the 118th Congress:

• Committee on Financial Services (Ranking Member)

Caucus memberships

• Chief Deputy Whip
• Founding member and Chair of the Out of Iraq Caucus
• Congressional Progressive Caucus
• Congressional Black Caucus (CBC); past chair of CBC (105th United States Congress)
• Medicare for All Caucus

Personal life

Waters's second husband, Sid Williams, played professional football in the NFL and is a former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas under the Clinton Administration. They live in Los Angeles's Windsor Square neighborhood.

In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Waters confirmed her sister, Velma Moody, had died of the virus aged 86.

Other achievements

• Maxine Waters Preparation Center in Watts, California – named after her while she was a member of the California Assembly
• Co-founder of Black Women's Forum
• Co-founder of Community Build
• Received the Bruce F. Vento Award from the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty for her work on behalf of homeless persons.
• Candace Award, National Coalition of 100 Black Women, 1992

Electoral history

California State Assembly

U.S. House of Representatives

Images for kids

• 

  Waters speaking to the California Democratic Party State Convention in June 2019.

• 

  Waters at the Daunte Wright protests in 2021

See also

• List of African-American United States representatives
• Women in the United States House of Representatives